Chapter 11
Chapter 11
G ideon walked by the side of the road, head down, kicking at rocks and gravel and dirt clods as he went. His dad would be mad at him, he knew, not just for missing the school bus, but for not calling him, or at least waiting to hitch a ride home with Harper.
He’d been expecting her to come along, stop and pick him up, but so far, he hadn’t seen a single car or truck on the road, and he was beginning to regret his decision to avoid Justin and his buddies by hiding in the schoolyard until the bus was gone. After all, he’d been walking for almost an hour, and he was still a long way from home.
Home.
The word made Gideon smile.
He finally had a home, a real one. He had a dad and a dog and a horse and a few friends, which was pretty much all he’d ever wanted.
He maneuvered his backpack off his shoulders, opened the flap, and dug through the contents until he found his phone.
He’d never had his own phone before, and this one was high-quality. He played video games on it whenever he got the chance, and it made him feel safe, knowing he could connect with his dad or Harper or Tom Winter Moon if he needed help.
Gideon let his thumb hover over his dad’s name in the contact list, but he didn’t press the digital button. Skipping the bus ride was going to get him into the kind of trouble that would last a while.
He was just about to put the fancy gadget away and keep walking when he heard the car.
Everything within him stilled, and he felt as though the soles of his feet had grown roots, ones that tunneled deep into the hard dirt of that country road. He knew the sound of that car.
Before he could dive for the brush lining the sides of the road, the old, rusted-out wreck roared around a corner and came to a dust-flinging stop right beside him.
Loreen stared at him from behind the wheel for what seemed like several minutes, though it was probably only a few moments, and Gideon still couldn’t move. He couldn’t even speak, let alone run for it.
His mother leaned across the bench seat and pushed open the passenger-side door.
“Get in,” she said. Her hair was mussed, with three inches of roots showing, and her makeup was smeared, blurring her features.
Gideon still didn’t move.
It was all over. All the good things in his life would be gone soon, and he would never see his dad again.
“N-no,” he managed.
“What are you doing out here all alone, anyhow?” Loreen demanded. She was high; he could tell by the dullness in her eyes and the twitch of various muscles in her face and along the length of her skinny neck. “Damn it, Gideon, get in the car. I’m taking you back to your fancy-ass ranch and your rich daddy, so let’s get going, okay?”
He shouldn’t have believed her; he knew better.
But he was scared, and he hung on to the hope that she really meant to take him home. She was probably back in the area because she needed money; he was just a pawn in the game.
So he got into the car, closed the door, fastened his seat belt.
Loreen immediately jerked the phone out of his hand. He’d forgotten he was holding it.
“Now isn’t this a pricey little gizmo?” she said.
Gideon grabbed for the phone, but she dropped it into the holder in her door.
He moved to undo his seat belt, intending to jump out and take off running, phone be damned, but Loreen’s energy must have been spiking, because she laughed like a crazy woman, made a wide U-turn, and tore off in the direction she’d come from minutes before.
He slumped in the seat, the bulk of his backpack notwithstanding, and silently called himself ten kinds of idiot.
“You’re not taking me home,” he said flatly.
It wasn’t a question.
“Not just yet,” Loreen said, and when they came to the crossroads—left turn to head back to Copper Ridge, right to go south, in the general direction of Phoenix. “I’m going to see what I can get for the phone first.”
“Then take the phone and let me out of the car,” Gideon suggested, though it was more of a plea than a suggestion. “I want my dad.”
“Well, of course you do,” Loreen spouted. “That big house. All that money. And look at you, wearing rich-kid clothes.”
She was definitely high.
“Loreen,” Gideon said, “stop the car and let me out. Please.”
“Now that just wouldn’t be safe ,” she trilled. The pitch of her voice made his ears hurt, and his stomach was jumping around so much, he thought he might hurl all over the grubby dashboard. “What was Jack thinking, letting you walk along a country road all by yourself?”
“He doesn’t know I didn’t get on the bus,” Gideon confessed. “But he’ll come looking for me, so you might as well give me back now.”
“Oh, I’ll give you back, don’t you worry about that. If the price is right, that is.”
“He’ll press charges,” Gideon said. “Kidnapping is a serious crime, Loreen. It’s a felony, in fact.”
“Where do you get off calling me Loreen ? What happened to Mom ?”
“You’re not my mom. Harper’s going to be my mom pretty soon, I think. Dad’s in love with her, and she’s spending a lot of time at our place. She’s nice and she’s pretty and she doesn’t take drugs. She’ll make a really good mom.”
Loreen’s knuckles turned white where she gripped the beat-up steering wheel, and she gunned the engine, her face contorted with anger.
Gideon sighed. He’d done it again. Said the wrong thing and set her off.
But then, everything set Loreen off, when she was like this.
Which was always.
“Mom,” he said, “slow down. You’ll get stopped for speeding.”
Please, God, let her get stopped. Then the cops will take me back to Dad.
Loreen drove faster, her jaw clamped down so hard it looked as if it might snap.
Gideon moved his pack to the floor, sat back, closed his eyes, and did his best not to cry.
Harper was about halfway home when she met Jack, driving his truck. Trey rode shotgun, tongue lolling.
Jack brought the truck to a dust-billowing stop, squinting through the haze. “Is Gideon with you?” he asked grimly.
Having buzzed down her passenger-side window, Harper coughed and waved a hand in front of her face, instantly alarmed. “No,” she called back. “For God’s sake, Jack, what’s wrong ?”
“He didn’t get off the bus. I was helping with one of the construction projects, and it took me a while to notice.”
Glad she’d left Ollie home that day, Harper pulled over and got out of the car, locking it behind her with the key fob.
Without being invited, she scrambled into the truck, forcing Trey to leap into the back seat to make room for her.
Jack was staring at his phone, flicking through a series of apps.
“He has to be with Loreen,” he said, dropping the phone into the console and jamming the gearshift hard before hitting the gas pedal. “They’re headed south.” He muttered the state route number and then added, “Call the police.”
Harper was already doing that.
“They’re alerting the highway patrol,” she relayed to Jack, moments later. “They want a description of Loreen’s car—and Loreen herself, of course.”
Jack reeled off the requested descriptions and Harper repeated them for the police dispatcher on the other end of the line.
Forty-five frantic minutes later, they’d tracked Loreen—via Gideon’s phone—to a service station along a two-lane highway. Trees towered behind the place, part of a dense wooded area.
There was one car parked at the pumps, and it was Loreen’s.
Two highway patrol cars screeched into the lot seconds after Jack braked hard beside the rig that looked to Harper as if it might fall apart at any moment.
Loreen was nowhere in sight—she could have been inside, paying for gas, or in the restroom. And, although the passenger door was wide open, Gideon wasn’t there, either.
Harper felt everything within her deflate.
She loved Jack, and she loved his son.
The two patrolmen were inside the station before Jack and Harper got out of the truck, Trey leaping down after them.
Jack looked wildly around him, clearly afraid.
“Gideon!” he yelled.
One of the state troopers came out of the gas station, holding Loreen firmly by one arm. The other officer followed and began searching her car.
Jack was turning in circles, shouting his son’s name.
Harper felt a pang of shared desperation.
“Where is he?” Jack demanded furiously, after striding over to face Loreen.
The woman’s shoulders sagged, and her head was down. She was about to offer a response when Trey suddenly began to bark and darted away from them, streaking toward the woods behind the station.
Jack was right behind him, with Harper close behind.
There was a crashing sound behind them as one of the troopers joined the chase.
The barking stopped, but there was a lot of rustling in the brush before Gideon appeared, Trey at his side. Tears streaked the boy’s face, but he was grinning.
Jack wrapped his arms around the boy, held him tightly, his eyes closed.
Harper rested a hand on Jack’s lower back. His breathing was fast and shallow, and he was trembling just a little.
“I told her you’d come looking for me,” Gideon all but crowed, looking up at his father, then over at Harper. “She’s really stupid!”
“She’s sick,” Harper said, very quietly. Then, when Jack finally stepped back, she hugged the boy, too.
Loreen was arrested, partly because she’d violated her custody agreement with Jack, but mostly because the troopers found a small packet of heroin in her glove compartment. Then, of course, there were the warrants.
She was handcuffed and read her rights.
She looked back, her expression sad, as she was ushered into the back of one of the cruisers. Again, though she couldn’t excuse what the woman had done, Harper felt sorry for Loreen.
“How did you find us so quick?” Gideon wanted to know. He was clearly relieved, and stuck close to Jack, who took out his phone and tapped the screen.
“Tracking app,” he replied.
“Loreen took my phone,” Gideon said. “I think it’s in the side panel of her door.”
Jack looked inquiringly at the remaining trooper. The car was about to be impounded and taken away, once the tow truck arrived, and the police would want to search it again, in case they’d missed anything the first time.
“Go ahead and take the phone,” the officer said, and Jack did so. “Looks like there’s a backpack in there, too.” He smiled down at the boy. “That yours?”
Gideon nodded.
“Okay. You’d better get that, too.”
Gideon immediately obliged.
“Will she go to prison? Loreen, I mean?” the boy asked, once he and Harper and Jack were all in the truck again. He and Trey were in the back.
“Maybe,” Jack said, glancing at the rearview mirror. “That’s not up to me.”
Harper saw the muscles in his face relax.
“Are you going to press charges?” Gideon persisted.
Jack exchanged glances with Harper, then nodded. “You bet I am. Your mom needs to take responsibility for what she did, and who knows? Maybe, with some time to think, she’ll get her act together one day.”
“Whatever happens,” Gideon replied, “I don’t want to see her again. Not ’til I’m a grown-up man, anyhow. Then I’ll be tough like you, and she won’t be able to mess with me.”
“In the meantime,” Jack began, putting the truck in gear and pulling out onto the road, headed toward home, “I’d like to know why you didn’t take the bus home like you were supposed to.”
Harper looked back at Gideon, gave him a reassuring smile and a little nod of encouragement.
“I didn’t want another run-in with Justin and his posse,” Gideon answered, ducking his head. “Obviously, that was a major mistake.”
Harper hid a grin.
“You’ve been making a lot of those lately,” Jack said seriously, though when he looked Harper’s way, she saw a twinkle in his eyes, along with heartrending relief.
“I know,” Gideon confessed. “I suppose I’m grounded again.”
“ Again is the operative word, champ,” Jack said. “We’ve got to get a handle on your behavior, sooner rather than later.”
“What I need,” Gideon announced, with rising enthusiasm, “is a mom. A real one—like Harper, for instance.”
Harper smiled, reached over, and squeezed Jack’s thigh lightly.
He smiled back at her. Winked. “You just might be right about that,” he told his son.